Lawrence Kasdan

At 75 years old, Lawrence Kasdan physical status not available right now. We will update Lawrence Kasdan's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American screenwriter, producer, and editor.

He is best known as co-author of The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and Solo. He has been nominated for three Oscars, twice for Best Original Screenplay for The Big Chill and Grand Canyon, and once for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Accidental Tourist.

He is the father of filmmakers Jake Kasdan and Jonathan Kasdan, as well as musician Inara George's father-in-law.

Early life

Kasdan was born in Miami Beach, Florida, the son of parents Sylvia, an employment counselor, and Clarence Kasdan, an electronics store manager. Kasdan is Jewish. Mark Kasdan, his older brother, co-wrote Silverado (1985) and produced Dreamcatcher (2003), has two sisters. Kasdan grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. "I felt very fortunate to have had a regular American childhood in the fifties," he said. "It was a safe place to live if you had a bicycle," says the town's manager.

His parents were both "thwarted writers." His father, who died when Kasdan was 14 years old, wanted to be a playwright, and his mother said she had studied with novelist and playwright Sinclair Lewis when she was at the University of Wisconsin. In the 1950s, she sold a few stories to "confessional journals" and later would buy self-help books and type up their pages with the intention of writing her own book one day. On the bus, she'll also start having conversations with strangers, proving that it was all "grist for the mill" for future writing. "I wonder if I owe her everything now," Kasdan wrote. "I became a writer by accident or nurture."

Many of Kasdan's films were inspired by his "difficult childhood and home life," he wrote. "I've been looking for something more stable or explored why growing up in my household was so upsetting."

"We didn't have a lot of money or nobody around us," he said, and going to the movies was the best thing about my childhood." In those days, Wheeling was not particularly popular." We used to call up the theater to see what time the show was starting, and they'd say, 'What time will you get here?'" says the host. He loved The Great Escape (1963) and The Magnificent Seven (1960), two John Sturges films that influenced his conceptions of manhood and heroism. "Film made its values tangible for me in the ways that parents, kindergarten, and Sunday School did not know about." I wanted to live in the world I found in the movies."

Mark Duan's Lawrence of Arabia in 1963 brought him to see David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. They arrived a few minutes late, and Mark insisted that they should not be able to kill six hours before the next performance. "I thought my brother was mad," says the narrator. But I knew I had done the right thing when the show was over. I had a new hero as I emerged from the theater having seen the entire film. It wasn't T.E. Lawrence, but David Lean."

In 1966, he graduated from Morgantown High School. He worked at a glass factory and the night shift at a grocery store in Wheeling, scraping meat from butcher machines to raise money for college. He applied to the University of Michigan because they were told they had the best-paying college writing competition in the country (the Hopwood Award) and that Arthur Miller, a playwright, had paid for his studies after winning the award. Kenneth Thorpe Rowe, Miller's mentor, was also a professor at the university, and Kasdan researched drama writing with Rowe.

From 1968 to 1970, he received the Hopwood Award four times, totaling $2,000. "My life changed forever" when Kasdan wrote to me that I had won Hopwood Awards in both fiction and drama." "It was the first sign of the real world, the outside world, the big-time world, that told me that this was not just a hopeless fantasy." ... Despite many years of discouraging years, there was never a day after I got the letter that I doubted I'd be able to make my way as a writer.

Kasdan marched on Washington to condemn the Vietnam War while in college. He also made one short film. "It's very crude," he said. "It was a wry glance at a professor I knew who was very interested in all the young female students," the professor said in a gritty, humourous film about his obsession with one particular woman. It was shot on 16mm. I cut it and mixed the sound, but I was never a technically savvy student filmmaker."

He was determined to become a director and decided that writing screenplays would be the best way to go. He enrolled in the UCLA writing program and briefly migrated to Los Angeles, but was dissatisfied and returned to Ann Arbor, where he worked in a record store and continued writing screenplays.

He obtained a master's degree in education at the University of Michigan in 1971 and completed with the intention to help him as a high school English tutor before he moved to Hollywood. However, he soon found that there were no such jobs in high school. "It was almost as difficult to get that kind of work as being a film director," he said. Later in life, he found that film shoots could be helpful: "You can monitor an unruly class at any level, but the more you shout, the less effective yelling becomes," he said. "That has inspired my approach to directing; for me, being difficult gives someone a glimpse at what another director might scream at them."

Personal life

Since November 28, 1971, Kasdan has been married to Meg Kasdan (née Mary Ellen Goldman). They met at the University of Michigan, where they were both English majors. Jake Kasdan and Jonathan Kasdan's two sons, as actors, writers, producers, and directors, are both involved in film as actors, writers, producers, and directors. He has three grandchildren.

Source

Career

Kasdan, who was unable to find a teaching position, took up teaching at the Westminster Bank. Doner Agency in Detroit: A career he didn't like but found success in, winning a Clio Award for his first television commercial as well as an award from The One Show. "Kadan was more adept at writing for television than for print," his boss, Jim Dale, told him. Kasdan referred to his five years in television as "hellacious," and he continued to write screenplays at night.

Kasdan's sixth completed screenplay was about a female singer who falls in love with her bodyguard, which he wrote in 1975. With The Bodyguard, he was able to find an agent, Norman Kurland, and he started a Los Angeles advertising firm to help support a relocation to California. Kurland sent the script around town for two years, but it was turned down 67 times. Although Kasdan had no intention to write for television, he couldn't even get him a job writing Starsky and Hutch," Kurland said. He was hired to write a story for a The film was never made. He continued to write screenplays, including one that he referred to as a "un-progressible historical" film.

Warner Bros. eventually purchased the Bodyguard for $20,000. Over the years, it was rewritten several times and attached to various actresses (including Diana Ross and Whoopi Goldberg) whose characters were in various professions. In the original draft, Kasdan wrote it with Steve McQueen as Frank the bodyguard; the only one who failed to save was John F. Kennedy; When Kasdan directed him in Silverado, Kevin Costner was a screen actor, he referred to him as a hero. In 1991, he ordered Kasdan to make The Bodyguard with Costner in the title role. Kasdan had "messed around" with it so often he was so hungry, and he was going to order Grand Canyon, but instead he hired Mick Jackson, who had just made L.A. Story (1991) with Steve Martin, who had just worked with Steve Martin. Whitney Houston was portrayed by Rachel Marron as a legendary singer.

Kasdan was dissatisfied with the film's results, "but I think it had nothing to do with Mick Jackson," he later said. "I believe it had to do with the fact that I'm not a good person for allowing others to dictate my screenplays," I said of The Bodyguard. Kevin and I were involved in the editing, which is not something I would normally do with any other director. I don't want people messing with my movie. We were the designers, but we had serious issues with it."

Despite receiving "probably the worst reviews I've ever had," Kasdan said, the film was a huge box office hit when it was released on November 25, 1992, grossing more than $411 million worldwide. "I probably wouldn't have made it," Kasdan said, "I should not have directed the film": "I certainly wouldn't have done anything like this one."

Kasdan wrote Continental Divide, a script about a brash Chicago journalist who falls in love with a woman living in the mountains studying eagles, in the vein of an old Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedy while The Bodyguard was being passed around town. While eating lunch on the lawn of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he came up with the outline.

Kurland turned it around and paid tribute to Steven Spielberg, who was on the dubbing stage for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). In October 1977, Spielberg had Universal buy the script for $150,000, with the intention to serve as executive producer. Spielberg said, "I was looking for a love story to do." "Actually, it was a very tense bidding situation." It was bid by four studios, but Universal made the highest bid. The script was fantastic. Larry is an excellent writer. We haven't seen anything here for a long time, according to the author. In a new, exciting way, he writes about the 1940s and 1940s. He adores old movies and relies on them for his work. He's looking for a new region based on old ground.

The film was eventually produced several years later, starring John Belushi and Blair Brown and directed by Michael Apted. It came out on September 18, 1981, just three weeks after Kasdan's debut, Body Heat, was announced.

Richard Corliss wrote:

The original script was "very different from the film" that resulted, according to Kasdan. The script had a [Howard] Hawksian speed and vigor, with perhaps a hint of humor. I don't believe the film turned out that way, it was one of those horrible experiences I had early on."

Spielberg's obsession with Continental Divide led him to his recruiter, Kasdan, to write Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he was co-creating with George Lucas. "I think they were looking for someone who could write Raiders in the same way that Hawks would have someone write a film about him," Kasdan said. "George, Steven, and I spoke for about 20 minutes in a now-famous meeting (with producer Frank Marshall also in the room). We stood up and shook hands, and George said, 'Let's make this movie.' I had just met the guy and a few minutes later, I was in business with him."

"We're going to do a film that looks like the old serials," Kasdan recalls. "I don't know too much about it," the hero is named after my dog, Indiana. "The hero wears a fedora and a leather jacket, as well as a whip," I can recall.' Philip Kaufman, a writer-director who got the idea from his orthodontist when he was 11 years old, was able to have the work be the Biblical Ark of the Covenant. (At one point, Kaufman was supposed to be with the Raiders). (He came up with a "story about" credit.

In an epic brainstorming session with Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan, the remainder of the story was hashed out:

They came up with a one-page transcript, and Kasdan wrote the screenplay in Spielberg's office when the director was making 1941. It took him six months.

Kasdan said he wanted to capture the essence of old Hollywood stars such as Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster, and Clark Gable for the character of Indiana Jones. Steve McQueen, one of my favorite actors, is one of my favorites," he said. "I loved the poetry in the way he moved—his stylized movement." I wanted the Raiders to have that heightened sense of reality. "I came together with George's obsession with serials and Steven's adoration for kinetic thrust," I said.

Lucas wanted the character to be more like James Bond, so Kasdan had to write a new version of the scene in which Brody goes to his house, according to Lucas. "George wanted Indy to be a playboy," Jones said as he arrived at the door wearing a tuxedo. In Indy's living room, he'll see a stunning, Harlow-type blonde sipping champagne. My impression was that Indiana Jones' two sides (professor and adventurer) made him difficult enough without including the playboy element.

Originally, the Staff of Ra was divided into two pieces; Marion Ravenwood had one and the other was on display in the Chinese warlord's museum. Indy left America and headed straight to Shanghai, where Kasdan created a complete sequence with a gong rolling along a floor and Indy running behind it to avoid gunshots—which was later repurposed in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. "That scene would have been fantastic," Kasdan said, "but we cut it before shooting because it would have slowed the film's speed and may have been too costly to shoot."

Following Indy's crash, he was supposed to be on a plane, and although he's asleep, all of the passengers parachute off. Indy rides down the slopes to Marion's bar right before the plane crashes in the Himalayas. "We took the scene out because we felt it would be too unbelievable," Kasdan said. In Temple of Doom, it was also recycled.

Indy and Marion first met together in a long dialogue sequence, but Spielberg cut it in the editing room. "We all agreed that the exposition was terribly important," Kasdan said, "and then their friendship was established for the full picture."

The film came out on June 12, 1981, grossing more than $390 million internationally, winning five Academy Awards out of nine nominations. Kasdan was eventually compelled to watch the finished film. "I'm really proud of the Raiders now, and I'm proud of it," he wrote in 1999. "I think it's a wonderful film, and I think Steven did a fantastic job with it."

George Lucas hired Leigh Brackett, the sci-fi novelist who also wrote screenplays for Howard Hawks, including The Big Sleep (1946), to write the sequel to Star Wars (1977). Brackett died in March 1978 while the film was still in pre-production, but Lucas wasn't happy with her script. George wrote the next draft himself, which gave shape and twists closer to the final film's look but was lacking in dialogue. Lucas begged him to rewrite The Empire Strikes Back when Kasdan's script for the Raiders. Kasdan suggested that he read the Raiders first, but Lucas later said, "I hate the Raiders and call you up tomorrow and cancel this offer," says the Raiders' owner, but I get a feeling about people."

The bulk of the plot elements and characters were already in place, but Kasdan made it darker than the first Star Wars. "George was open to it and eager to have it happen," he said. "He saw a trajectory in three Star Wars films." The Empire Strikes Back was the second act in the series, and traditionally, the second act is when things start going wrong. Even though Kershner and I were behaving as his servants, George made his [most] decision when he hired Irvin Kershner to direct.

It was the first time Kasdan's name appeared in the credits of a film when The Empire Strikes Back came out on May 21, 1980. He believed that his major contribution to Lucas' story was in the development of character. In 1981, Kasdan said, "George is one of the good guys." "But he and I have our own differences." "You will have to play for large stakes," George says if you play the commercial movie game, a very costly game.

Kasdan started his film career after he wrote The Empire Strikes Back, but he wasn't involved in writing another Star Wars story. Lucas had praised him on Body Heat as an uncredited filmmaker, so Kasdan was obliged to repay Lucas for the third chapter (then titled Revenge of the Jedi).

The shooting script was written in 1981 by Lucas, and was based on a Lucas tale. "It's really George's tale in both of the Star Wars films," Kasdan said. "I entered Empire when there was still a draft." On Jedi, George had written a draft that was later updated drastically. Then he and I actually collaborated on the script."

The Jedi's return to the Jedi was announced on May 25, 1983, grossing $475 million. Lucas had already talked about making both a prequel and sequel trilogy; the prequels he'd write and direct himself 20 years later; and the Walt Disney Company's episode 7 through 9, which were released in 2012. Kasdan predicted that "they'll certainly shoot the before-Luke trilogy next," about young Darth and young Ben, as well as young Ben. You can't be certain with George, but you can't be sure about him. This will be my last Star Wars film, for myself. On the other hand, you never know. "I didn't know I'd be working on this one";

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm and wanted to produce more Star Wars films, Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm's current president, begged Kasdan to attend. "I said, 'I don't really want to... "I said, 'I don't really want to... "I said, I didn't want to..." "I just feel like I've done this," he recalled. "We want to do a film about Han," the singers sang. That got me. It was the only one that could have gotten me."

Michael Arndt had been hired to write Episode VII, and Kasdan had asked Kasdan to consult on it as well. "Han Solo is really the person that people find irresistible, not Luke," he said. "Luke is just too good for people to invest in." Han is right out of the classic mold. He's William Holden. Jimmy Cagney is the man. He's Humphrey Bogart. Han is the one who is compelled to be altruistic and heroic." In Return of the Jedi, he had preferred to kill Han off. "We're ending the trilogy," he said. "We don't want to lose someone important." It would put this thing into perspective. And George did not like it." Both actor Harrison Ford and actress Harrison Ford finally got their wish in The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out on December 18, 2015. It earned more than $2 billion worldwide, smashing the North American record for top-grossing film of all time. "One of the Jedi's co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and, perhaps more importantly, wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark," Todd McCarthy wrote in his essay for The Hollywood Reporter.

The Saturn Award for Best Writing for The Force Awakens was given to Kasdan, along with Abrams and Arndt. After losing his previous nominations for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Kasdan won his first film as a Star Wars fan.

Kasdan produced the screenplay for a Han Solo origin tale — the one assignment with Disney and Lucasfilm that he accepted — along with his son, Jonathan Kasdan, a writer and director. The younger Kasdan had minor appearances in his father's films as early as The Big Chill, but they had never written a script together.

Solo: A Star Wars Story tells the story of the character's backstory: how he found his name, how he met Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian, and the beginning of his internal conflict between self-interested scoundrel and hero. In the role created by Harrison Ford, Alden Ehrenreich was played. The production was marred by drama; most notably, the original producers, Philipp Lord and Christopher Miller, were shot during the shooting and replaced by Ron Howard. The film debuted on May 25, 2018, with just under $393 million worldwide (the lowest box office sales for any live action Star Wars film to date).

Kasdan had the opportunity to direct his own film after writing Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back.

Alan Ladd Jr., the head of Twentieth Century Fox and a major player in Star Wars, gave Kasdan the contract, but by the time the script was complete, Ladd was no longer at Fox. Many of the current contracts, including Kasdan's, were reversed by Sherry Lansing, the current president. In 1979, Laddd founded The Ladd Company, but he was only allowed to produce Body Heat on the condition that an established director "sponsor" the untested Kasdan.

So Kasdan reached out to George Lucas:

Ned Racine, a lawyer who becomes sexually linked with a married woman, Matty Walker, and the two plot to murder her husband and collect the insurance. Kasdan wanted to cast a character, but William Hurt, a stage actor who had just made his film debut in Altered States (1980), was rejected by the producers. Kathleen Turner, a new unknown, was cast as Matty and Ted Danson as one of Ned's coworkers. (When filming Body Heat, Danson was offered the role of Sam Malone on Cheers.) The heat-centric story was initially set in New Jersey, but an actor's strike postponed its arrival until December, so the location was moved to Miami.

Body Heat was launched on August 28, 1981. The majority of commentators praised it because it made more than $24 million domestically on a $7 million budget. The Variety review described it as "an engrossing, highly fashionable meller [melodrama] in which sex and crime walk hand in hand down the road to disaster, as in the old days. Lawrence Kasdan, a screenwriter who lives in the shadow of late James M. Cain's death, makes an enthralling debut, with a vehicle that could clinch actor status for William Hurt.

Turner was given a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA nomination for her work. Kasdan was nominated for Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and his screenplay was nominated for a WGA Award by the Writers Guild of America.

Body Heat Kasdan was preparing for a big ensemble film, partly as a result of his "claustrophobic" experience of working with only two actors in intimate settings. Body Heat had discarded the bulk of the overt generational commentary, and he wanted to make a film that would discuss the head-on.

Barbara Benedek, his lawyer's wife, had begun writing screenplays (and was a story editor on two ABC television series), and Kasdan suggested co-writing with her. She was "enormously influential on the tone," he said, and they created characters based on real people they encountered -- as well as "a little bit of ourselves."

A group of close college friends reunites for the funeral of their friend, who died by suicide, over the course of a weekend. Kasdan had trouble finding a buyer because "no one believed that an ensemble film could be financially successful." You always wanted a hero, and hopefully a white male that the audience could invest in, as well as a sidekick or a woman with whom he was associated with. They were only perplexed when I told them that they were in possession of eight protagonists in a film. He pitched it to "about seventeen different locations," but they all passed. Johnny Carson had a deal to make films at Columbia University, and producer Marcia Nasatir convinced Carson to make The Big Chill.

Hurt and Kevin Kline, as well as Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place, Tom Berenger, and JoBeth Williams were among the ensemble cast members of Kasdan's film career, as well as Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, and JoBeth Williams. (Kevin Costner, a Kasdan regular, was a member of Alex, but his scenes were cut with the other flashbacks.) The film was shot in a real house in South Carolina, which had been used in The Great Santini for four weeks. The cinematographer, John Bailey, was the husband of editor Carol Littleton. Meg, Kasdan's wife, produced the '60s pop soundtrack, which plays an outsized part in the film. The album has more than six million copies and is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

On September 30, 1983, the Big Chill was born. It lasted in theaters for six months, earning more than $56 million (on a budget of $8 million) and receiving mostly applauds. Vincent Canby wrote an article for The New York Times titled: '"Canby wrote: "I'm not a bigote, who wrote "a New York Times review":

Roger Ebert's review was more divided: his point of view was more conflicted: his argument was more contested:

Three Academy Awards have been given to the film for best original screenplay, best supporting actor (Glenn Close), and best picture. The screenplay was nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and it received the WGA Award. The Directors Guild of America nominated Kasdan for a DGA Award.

He later said:

Commenting on its appeal, Kasdan said:

F.X., a film writer. "Kasdan developed a national conversation piece," Feeney said. People of 'The Big Chill Generation' followed him.' Critics also referred to films made by later generations, those from earlier decades, as 'The Little Chill'. (So, Kasdan created a new genre in a sense.)"

Kasdan was a lifelong admirer of westerns, especially The Magnificent Seven (1960).

He and his older brother, Mark Kasdan, co-wrote the screenplay for Silverado. The tale, set in 1880, is about a motley crew of cowboys who team up and put aside self-interest in order to shield a small town from a corrupt sheriff.

Kasdan said:

For the second time as lead cowboy Paden, he starred Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, reunited with Kasdan in Grand Canyon), and Kevin Costner (who re-teamed with Kasdan for another western, Wyatt Earp). Brian Dennehy was portrayed as the wicked sheriff, and Kasdan's son Jonathan and wife Meg had bit parts.

The film was shot in New Mexico during the winter of 1984, and a complete town set was constructed near Santa Fe and then used in several photos, including Wyatt Earp. During development, some of the cast members hypothermiaed, and Kasdan had to deal with both blizzards and flash floods.

Columbia rushed the film's release by several months after failing to coordinate the usual marketing and merchandising activities in time. It came out on July 10, 1985 and did well—$32 million on a $26 million budget—but Kasdan believes it would have been more effective with a more concerted release program.

The reports were generally favorable.

Roger Ebert wrote:

The film received Oscar recognition for best sound and best original score (composed by Bruce Broughton). At the Venice Film Festival, Kasdan received the Young Venice Award—Special Mention.

With an Academy Award nomination for best picture, Kasdan received the highest industry accolade of his career for The Accidental Tourist. After making Silverado, he decided not to watch The Untouchables (1987) because he didn't like the script; it was eventually directed by Brian De Palma. He had also been working on Man Trouble (1992), but he disagreed with the developers over Carole Eastman's screenplay. (Bob Rafelson produced the film.) Despite the fact that it has surfaced similar to Man Trouble, he was tempted to The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler's book, and both stories are strange-couple romances with a woman who raises dogs—he "fell in love with it."

John Malkovich had been planning the project, and he had recruited theater director Frank Galati to write a script. When Kasdan took over, he wrote his own version—actually giving Galati writing credit. This one, as well as several of Kasdan's personal stories, was about the birth of a new family to replace a dysfunctional one. For the lead, he portrayed William Hurt for the third time.

Kasdan said:

Kasdan and Hurt reunited with Body Heat's Kathleen Turner, portraying Macon's estranged wife. Muriel, Kasdan's screen-tested four women, one of the eccentric dog trainers.

The film was shot on location in Baltimore and Paris, as well as on Burbank's Warner Bros. lot. When she was looking for places, Anne Tyler drove Kasdan around Baltimore.

When it first appeared on December 23, 1988, the Accidental Tourist was a surprise hit. Throughout the awards season, it earned more than $32 million and rode a wave of critical acclaim. Despite strong criticism from several observers, including Pauline Kael, who wrote: It received the New York Film Critics Award despite fierce critique from many commentators, including Pauline Kael:

Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer, who deserved recognition for being the determining vote in the film's favor, was in stark contrast.

Sarris wrote:

Roger Ebert praised the screenplay:

Two Golden Globe nominations (for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Score), a BAFTA Award (Best Adapted Screenplay), and four Oscar nominations have been given: Best Original Score (composed by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay (Best Adapted Screenplay), and Best Picture have been awarded by the Academy Awards: Best Original Score (composed by John Williams) and Best Picture have been nominated for the film: Best Original Score (composed by John Williams) and Best Motion Picture in the film competition (Best Motion Picture Animated Screenplay), Best Animated Screenplay (Best Animated Screenplay Award (Best Animated Screenplay Award (Best Animated Screenplay (Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Original Score (Best Original Score (Best Animated Screenplay Animated Screenplay) and Best Original Score (Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Original Score (Best Original Score) and Best Original Score (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Best Original Score) and Best Original Score (Best -Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Original Score (Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Adapted Screenplay) and Best Original Score (Best -Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Original Score) and Best Original Score (Best Animated Screenplay) and Best -Best -Best -Best Animated Screenplay) and Best Adapted Screenplay) and Best Original Score) Davis received an Academy Award for her supporting role.

"I have occasionally been dissatisfied by the size of my audience, but not on this film," Kasdan said. "I'm surprised we brought as many people in to see it as we did." It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had. I'm as proud of The Accidental Tourist as I have ever been."

After the death-heavy The Accidental Tourist, Kasdan wanted to do something "light and irreverent": after the tragedy, he was given a script by John Kostmayer based on a true tale from Pennsylvania: a woman tried to murder her husband several times over his infidelity, but she and her accomplices went to prison, but eventually, the husband told her to prison, and she and her accomplices were arrested and took her back. "I was captivated by the tale," Kasdan said. "I thought it would be a wonderful film."

It was the first film he directed from another writer's script, as well as a tonal departure for Kasdan: a black comedy starring Kevin Kline as the pizzeria owner and serial cheater Joey, as well as a straight appearance by Tracy Ullman as his wife, Rosalie. River Phoenix, Joan Plowright, William Hurt, and Keanu Reeves were among the ensemble cast members. The film was shot in Tacoma, Washington.

In 1999, Kasdan wrote:

I Love You to Death first appeared on April 6, 1990. It was $16 million, and analysts were mostly critical, although Roger Ebert's analysis was more mixed: it was more cautious:

Later, Kasdan spoke about I Love You to Death and its depreciation:

Kasdan started writing a screenplay about marriage and parenting in his 40s, with his oldest son leaving for college.

He said:

The screenplay, which he wrote with his wife Meg Kasdan, expanded to a larger canvas that dealt with Los Angeles' racial issues and the emergence of existential crises of the period. Kasdan's regular actors, Kline and Glover, appeared alongside Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker, and Alfre Woodard, on a $20 million budget. (In exchange for corporate membership, the actors were given smaller compensation.) The film follows separate but often interwoven tales of several characters from Los Angeles' socioeconomic and racial divides, and it explores issues such as fate, death, marriage, the ethics of violence in filmmaking, and others. The score was produced by James Newton Howard, who has worked with Kasdan on every film since.

Kasdan said:

On December 25, 1991, Grand Canyon came out. The ensemble cast and socioeconomic/generational analysis made instant comparisons to The Big Chill, and most of the reviews were enthusiastic.

Roger Ebert wrote:

The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, as well as a Golden Globe and a WGA Award. Some commentators found the finale, which has the ensemble members staring in awe at the authentic Grand Canyon, to be a cop-out happy ending. "Taking an unconvincingly beatific look at the issues and dangers that had been so convincingly outlined in what has come before," Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times. However, Kasdan's intentions were more vague, he said:

The 1992 Los Angeles riots occurred within months of the film's release. "There was a lot of news about the fact that Grand Canyon had predicted the eruption of rage and violence," Kasdan said. "Anyone walking around Los Angeles at the time could feel it." The riots in Baltimore were a natural disaster that no one could have predicted."

"A sexy melodrama" written by Blade Runner (1982) screenwriter David Webb Peoples, and it was one of Kasdan's abandoned projects over the years, with Kevin Costner starring. Costner approached him in 1992 with the script for a six-hour miniseries about Wyatt Earp's life. "I told him that I was going to commit to another picture," Kasdan said. "Why are you doing it?" acostner said.

Why don't you do Wyatt Earp?

"I don't like the screenplay," I said. 'Well, then, write a new screenplay,'" the actor said. Kasdan agreed on the condition that they shoot the following summer, which Costner accepted. In three months, Kasdan wrote a screenplay.

Kasdan was delighted with his screenplay, but not so much so Costner, who was also attached to the original miniseries idea. "Kevin and I were picturing a "Western Godfather," the miniseries script writer Dan Gordon said. "It was supposed to be two movies, but it was actually centered on three families: the Earps and two organized crime families." Mike Gray, a bizarro mirror image of Earp, managed to get Tombstone, Mississippi's richest town, deeded to his private business. It was a land grab worth $10 million to $20 million in 1880 dollars, and Wyatt Earp was the only thing between him and the money.

Kasdan said:

Kasdan eventually wrote a book about Gordon, who also worked as an executive producer on the film.

Joanna Going, Catherine O'Hara, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, Mark Harmon, and Gene Hackman were among the Surrounding Costners. Dennis Quaid lost 43 pounds on a controlled diet to play Doc Holliday, a film in which Kasdan called "the most enjoyable part of the film."

Wyatt Earp was a much more exciting venture than Kasdan's previous western, Silverado. It was shot in 1993 over the course of 19 weeks (with an entire week of rehearsals), on location in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two major sets each starring eight distinct Western towns and thousands of extras. Owen Roizman, cinematographer on The French Connection (1971), shot it on film in an amorphic style.

"It's an epic film on an epic scale," Kasdan said. "It shows the railroad's construction and a period of Wyatt's life." So in several ways, it was exactly the challenges that I was looking for. It's a huge bite of a movie, and there are things in it that are as good as anything I've ever done."

Kurt Russell played Doc Holliday in the film's second year on a $60 million budget, not least because of Tombstone, but not least because of Tombstone, the concurrent film starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer. Kevin Jarre, Tombstone's writer and original producer (who was later suspended from the project), had intended to make a Wyatt Earp story with Costner, but the two guys had conflicting plans about the story's tone and direction, and each went their own way. Tombstone was in production at the same time, but it was released on Christmas Eve, 1993, just six months before Wyatt Earp.

"Tombstone scared us because it's a completely different film, and it wasn't even as serious."

The formal reception was chilly.

Kasdan later said:

Meg Ryan, who at the time was married to Wyatt Earp actor Dennis Quaid, sent Kasdan a script she'd written for herself. It was written by Adam Brooks and it was about a woman who overcomes her fear of flying and heads to Paris to confront her cheating fiancé, and in the process, a French thief was the victim. Because "I wouldn't have to write anything new," Kasdan said, he was drawn to the scheme. I'd just watched this really difficult film and I thought, oh, I'll go to France with my family for a while. "I love France."

Timothy Hutton played Charlie Hutton as the cheating fiancé and Kevin Kline as Luc Teyssier, the robber.

About his go-to star, Kasdan said:

On May 5, 1995, French Kiss was announced. It earned nearly $39 million in the United States and more than $101 million internationally.

After French Kiss, Kasdan wrote a Sojourner spec script for Disney, a large-scale fantasy film set in the 1930s about a father and his son. "I love effects," he said, "but they very rarely are married to a story that intrigues me." So I wrote one of my kind of stories, one of which concerned effects. It was not cheap for a large production, because not only one but two movie stars were needed." Mel Gibson was attached to play the film but then pulled the plug and instead wrote the screenplay for Mumford.

The tale revolves around a psychologist named Mumford, who has a mystery past and moves to Mumford, Michigan, to begin treating the city's homeless residents. Loren Dean was played by Kasdan in the title role, as well as Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, Martin Short, and Ted Danson.

When it first came out on September 24, 1999, it did not do well, and critics were split.

Roger Ebert wrote:

Dreamcatcher, a 2001 film by Stephen King, was Arguably Kasdan's least well-received film. The tale, which was written during King's recovery from being hit by a van in 1999, is about four friends and a boy with special abilities, including aliens, telepathy, and extreme body terror. While on Oxycontin, the author later claimed that he wrote a lot of it.

Kasdan co-wrote the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Princess Bride (1987). "The ache is all about the book," Kasdan said.

Dreamcatcher was created by Castle Rock Entertainment and shot in British Columbia. Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Timothy Olyphant, and Donnie Wahlberg appeared on the film. It was announced in March 21, 2003, and it earned $82 million around the world.

Darling Companion, Dreamcatcher and Kasdan's next film, has been nine years. During this time, he adapted script from Richard Russo's book The Risk Pool, which he was constructing with Tom Hanks as the lead, as well as a few other aborted projects. When their dog was missing in the mountains of Colorado, he eventually decided to make an independent film based on an event from his and Meg's own lives.

As he had done on Grand Canyon, he co-wrote the screenplay for Darling Companion with Meg. In some ways, the film is a reflection of his body of work: an elderly mother finds a helpless creature, bathes it, and maintains it (here a baby in Grand Canyon); characters wander around in the mountain wilderness like in Continental Divide; and there is a central dog/human relationship similar to The Accidental Tourist. There's even a quote from The Empire Strikes Back about the "dark side" of the Rebel War.

Darling Companion was funded independently by his employer, Kasdan Pictures, as well as Werc Werk Works and Likely Story. Since the production was made on a modest budget ($5 million), Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Richard Jenkins, Dianne Wiest, and Mark Duplass all participated in the ensemble cast. For the first time, Kasdan shot the film on location in Utah. It was released on April 27, 2012.

Kasdan is currently working on a documentary about record label executive Mo Ostin and the adaptation of a book entitled November Road, as of 2020.

"Directing is the most rewarding career in the world, but the job is so difficult," he said in 1991. "Each picture is like a child, requiring a lot of heart and effort." I've decided that I want to work a lot because I have the passion and passion for it. If the time comes when I'm not having fun, I'll walk away." Kasdan has produced just two feature films in the preceding 22 years as of 2022.

Kasdan was inspired by classic English literature, plays, and 1970s, 1960s, and 1960s literary films.

He said:

He said that his scripts all started with their characters:

Kasdan said: "In terms of his directing style, he said:

On working with actors, he said:

Kasdan also participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound film competitions of the year. Contemporary filmmakers were asked to choose ten films of their choice every ten years to select the best films of all time. In alphabetical order, Kasdan selected the following items.

Kasdan has made several films beyond those he directed: Cross My Heart (1989), Immediate Family (1989), The Boneyard (1991), Barbara Benedek-Jumpin' (1998), Home Fries (2004), which was written and directed by Jake Kasdan.

In Darling Companion, he has made several cameo appearances: as a gambler in I Love You to Death as a producer, as a gambler in Wyatt Earp, and as a man walking a dog. In As Good as It Gets (1997), directed by James L. Brooks, Jack Nicholson played Jack Nicholson's psychiatrist.

Source